I regularly attend industry functions, read trade materials in an effort to keep current with my field. I also work closely with my co-workers - other instructors, learning about their "best practices" in the classroom. The CEE instructional courses are also a terrific way to refresh, or learn new skills.
Observe superior instructors.
Hi Bianca,
One thing that I do is to tie my communication and student responses into point rewards. I share information with them and ask them to answer a question or solve a problem. This greatly increases the responses I get because the students want to get as many points as possible so they get right back with the emails.
Gary
I think one thing I am lacking is the ablity to get students to come and talk to me and for that matter truely listen to me. I have just started teaching online and after the first week I emailed all the students some additional guidelines for their discussion board participation. Based on the following weeks activities, it seems that either they did not read or care to follow my instructions. How can one foster effective communication with online students that seem unresponsive?
Hi James,
Right you are. A specific course is being developed to address what you have mentioned. With the emergence of so many different formats for offering courses we are striving to develop and field test specific strategies for use with the different course deliveries.
Gary
Find creative ways to replicate some of the methodology that is most useful in traditional classroom settings, in an online environment. The initial course needs to include an emphasis on those who teach and facilitate in an online environment. As currently structured, it is more focused on the needs and practices of on-ground classroom instructors.
Through the continued professional development opportunities related to the indivdual expertise area. Instructional abilities may come through the process of collaboration with other instructors as well.
Hi Martha,
How have you found these classes to be helpful in your teaching?
Gary
Taking professional development classes.
Teaching with others whenever possible, observing my peers teaching other classes, and learning from the student feedback in the end of course evaluations would all help me to expand my instructional abilities.
I try and go to workshops that are geared to teaching (in my field). I also listen to feedback from the students. They are the ultimate decision on how I teach my courses.
Hi Aileen,
You are right. The key is to stay up to date with the technology and content that needs to be incorporated into the courses we teach. Then we need to try them out for effectiveness and reception by students. Then we can make them a part of our teaching strategies which will make learning more effective.
Gary
Well, by engaging proactively with significant participants in educational scenarios, going forward, maximum leverage can be obtained, pertaining to:
a) didactic enhancement
b) ontological enhancement
c) physical health
It is the latter which is, perhaps, most intriguing as well as disturbing, and to best illustrate this I would take recourse in the following:
Dusseldorf is not the least interesting city in German, but it has little competition. Once, while attempting to explain in the most correct fashion just exactly HOW boring Dusseldorf was, I was forced to the unfortunate realization that of the audience collected:
- 2 spoke fluent German, whereas I did not
- 1 knew someone who spoke fluent German
- 3 were of German decent but couldn't speak a word
- 1 was Dutch
I decided that the best way of illustrating my point was to overlook ontology for once and concentrate on the most basic forms of illustration, and to that end I produced a photograph of Dusseldorf:
http://jacnor.eu/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/dusseldorf.jpg
And at that point I must end, since I had anticipated being able to show you the photograph, rather than simply the web link. However, if I had to summarize this experience (incompletely, I grant you) it would be as follows -- the expansion of one's "instructional abilities" tends to take place in context, rather than in the abstract.
Hi Timothy,
You make an excellent point about instructional improvement. The key is recognizing how you can use the different experiences and contact points to expand those skills. In other words, realize when those opportunities arise and then capturing their essence so they can be incorporated into your teaching skill set. That is why your statement about the concrete vs the abstract is so important.
Gary
Hi Robert,
All those items you listed are good ideas to continue your professional development. Among them what have you found to be the most helpful to you?
Gary
With the current generation of students being more of the internet-age, I feel that we need to "get with the times"... I don't necessarily mean an overhaul of teaching methods but definitely an infusion of new technology to bring current content to life, esp for concepts that proven to be difficult to grasp based on current teaching methods. I think if we coupled the old with some new, we can appeal to a wider range of learning abilities.
Observe/discuss with collegues, read technical journals, attend workshops, seminars and in-services, personal reflection.
Hi Glenda,
Thank you for sharing all of these very good examples of how you can expand your professional development to benefit your students.
Gary
I have found taking classes and reading professional journals to keep current with subject material. I have also found observing peers and discussions with them have given me some of the best ideas.
learning yourself, doing research in a specific field then applying then in class.
